The Winter Soldier Scene That Scarlett Johansson Suggested Be Cut From the Film

We’re betting there’s more than one deleted scene from Winter Soldier, five minutes of them, in fact. But according to the co-directors of the film, one Black Widow-heavy scene was cut on the suggestion of Scarlett Johansson herself.

Joe and Anthony Russo spoke to Collider, about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and, among other things, brought up an scene that was left on the cutting room floor.

There’s a great scene that got cut, a scene that’s a masterclass in acting between Scarlett and Sam Jackson. It took place near the end of the second act, it’s when they find Fury in the bunker and Scarlett takes issue with the fact that Fury did not let her in on the fact that he was still alive, and she actually believed that he was dead. It’s a nice moment for her, it’s a reflective moment where she goes “My god, this is the world that I’ve sort of invited myself into.” And Fury says “I couldn’t, I had to keep the circle small,” so i think its a very reflective moment for her. A short scene but it’s a great scene.

It’s easy to see the scene as just one more reason, on top of her organization being full of secret Nazi science agents, why Natasha changes over the course of the film from someone easy and calm with having a secret goal for her portion of a clandestine mission and fabricating a new identity as she goes, to someone willing to blast her bloodstained past out to the whole world. But the film accomplished that arc anyway, and according to the Russos, it was Johansson herself who was first to raise that point.

Weirdly it was Scarlett who said after she saw the movie, she loved the film, but she goes “It just seemed there was a bit of a drag in that section,” and she goes “This is crazy for me to recommend this, but do we really need that scene between me and Sam? Is there really narrative content in that scene? You could still get the same arc out of my character without it,” she actually recommended cutting her own scene.

That’s a pretty cool move for any actor to take, and I look forward to seeing the scene when that DVD drops. What? Oh, you’d like some more Marvel news? How about Paul Bettany talking about playing the Vision (1:15)?

How about Chadwick Boseman not-outright-denying that he’s in the running for Black Panther (3:33)?